Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 17:4

"And if he sin against thee seven times in the day, and seven times turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him." — Luke 17:4 (ASV)

If he trespass against you.—Better, if he sin. The better manuscripts omit the words against you, and so make the command more general; and the verb is the same as that in Matthew 18:21, the teaching of which is manifestly reproduced here. The outward form seems at first to present a somewhat lower standard of forgiveness, seven times, instead of seventy times seven. Here, however, it should be remembered that we have seven times a day, and the meaning is obviously the same in both passages. No accumulation of offenses, however often repeated, is to be allowed to bring us to the hardness that refuses to forgive when the offender says that he repents and asks for forgiveness.